A Blade of Fern
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???'s POV

Her heels click against the mottled stone paving around Hyrule castle as she weaves through the river of people. Her head is held up high, her eyes brushing through the crowd in hopes of finding the one person in her mind. She comes to a stop near the town café, nodding once at a passing person entering the building. She paid no heed for the delicious smells radiating from the café, instead focusing her attention solely on the image in her head.

She leans against the frame of the building, a foot propping her up. Brushing her hair back with her fingers, she lets out a deep sigh. Looking into the café, her stomach grumbles hungrily at the aroma of the iced buns on display. Holding her head in her hands, she presses her fingers to her throbbing temple. After a moment more, she lets her feet lead her into the café, taking out a red ruppee as she approaches the counter.

"Hello, ma'am, how may I help you?" Says the waitress kindly, offering the lady in front of her a small nod.

"Just an iced bun, thanks," she responds, keeping her head held high enough to impose a wave of confidence onto the waitress.

"That'll be 15 ruppees." The woman hands over the red ruppee that was in her hand, receiving a blue one in return with a brown packet with a large, iced bun. "Hope you enjoy," the waitress says once more, waving at the woman before she turns away and departs from the building. She pockets the ruppee in a small hessian satchel by her waist, then taking the bun from out of the bag.

Taking a bite out of it, she relieves the growing hunger in her stomach. With her needs satisfied, she continues on the brick path, keeping aware of those around her. She'd bound to run into them, at some point.

As she was busy eating her food, she failed to notice the person carving their way through the crowd, running as if he was being chased. Whilst doing so, he ran past the woman, effectively bumping into her aggressively enough to bring her to the ground. He pays no heed as he continues running, and from the ground, the woman notices some Hylian guards pursuing him. Ditching the bun and the bag, she returns to her feet in a matter of seconds, running with the guards.

One guard in particular gave her a funny looking, before she brushed any questions away with a firm shake of her head. She then ups her pace, running past the guards, just in arm's reach of the criminal. The one person she'd been looking for, for the past month.

"Get back here!" She finally speaks, her voice more of a shout than anything. When the man registers who was behind her, he increases his pace, running between all the buildings of Hyrule Town. After a few minutes, however, he loses the guards. The lady stays firmly on his tail, unsheathing the oakwood bow that had been resting safely on her back.

Whilst keeping at her normal pace, she nocks an arrow into the taut string, drawing back on the bowstring. As he was slowly pulling away from her, she expertly aimed the arrowhead at his legs, before letting go on the string, sending the arrow piercing through the air. It was his scream that first alerted the woman that her shot had landed, and the second thing that told her was the falling body in front of her. He landed with a thump on the ground, thick crimson blood pooling around his now injured leg.

"Aaron, don't you dare run from me again," the woman mutters darkly, grabbing a rope from her waist and hogtying him. When she finished tying both his wrists and ankles together, she then crouched down to bring her face to his. His expression was twisted in pain, yet his eyes held a burning fire to them. His glare was situated no other than her face, which didn't phase her in the slightest–she had her own glare unsheathed and pointed at him.

"You ugly cur, what the fuck do you want from me?" He spits out blood onto the ground, his nostrils flare and a corner of his mouth lifted aggressively up. She simply gets out the iron dagger at her waist, holding the base of the blade with her left finger, tantalisingly pressing the tip of the knife with her right. She then gives him a docile look, as if she hadn't just done what she'd done. "You freak... you're nothing like you used to be," he mutters furiously, letting out a sharp scoff at her calm composure.

"I suggest you control that tongue of yours... you don't want to lose it, do you?" She drawls out, holding the blade of the dagger out for his neck to see. She gently traces the cool metal across his skin, eliciting a sharp draw of breath from his shaking mouth. "Now, what I want is simple. I want the knowledge that you possess," for a second, she applies a little pressure to the knife, causing a droplet of blood to blossom from his neck, "and this is how I'll do it."

Standing up from her crouched position, she brings her fingers to her mouth, letting out a shrill, short whistle. Within seconds, two horses arrive with riders on their backs. The men quickly dismount, grabbing Aaron harshly by the shoulders, hoisting him up to his feet. The woman then saunters up to him, a sickly smirk on her face.

"I'll ask a question. You respond. These two will determine if you're lying or not, and if you are... I can assure you, they'll deal with it," she whispers, bringing her mouth to his ear. Still clutching the knife in her hand, she brings the point of it to his chest, pressing down hard enough to cut his shirt. From her actions, she hears him mutter 'freak' under his breath, and due to that, she presses a little harder, her eyes feeling satisfied with the view of more blood. "What did I say before? Control that tongue of yours. Say only what needs to be said."

"Where is my daughter?" The woman asks simply, looking expectantly at Aaron, her sharp eyes piercing his soul.

"I-I don't know, miss. I genuinely do not!" The woman looks to the guys holding Aaron up, raising an eyebrow at them. With a toothy smirk, one of them delivers a strong punch to Aaron's gut, forcing the man to let out a gargled cry.

"Now, I think you do. My boys certainly think so," the woman says, running the blade against his skin once more. She traces the point of it along his collarbone, then to his shoulder, before running it harshly down his arm. In the knife's wake, it draws out thick dots of blood from the deepening gash. Aaron grits his teeth and scrunches his eyes shut, before looking back at the woman.

"She's travelling, right now. I assure you; I don't know where," he cries out, his voice growing a little too loud for the woman's comfort.

"Keep your voice down, honey. We wouldn't want the Hylian guards after you, wouldn't we?" She murmurs, reaching the knife down to his thigh, before aggressively stabbing the blade into his flesh. Before he can let out a cry, one of the guys beside him shoves their fist in his mouth to block out the cries.

"Now, I'll ask only one more time," the woman removes the dagger from his thigh, "where is my daughter?" She suddenly brings her face up to his, her expression as dark as Calamity Ganon.

"S-she's on the road east of Mt. Daphnes," Aaron whimpers, shutting his eyes tight as the blade shines in front of him. The guys beside him give a subtle nod to the woman, who smiles in delight.

"Great we got that covered. You haven't let her head to the lake, have you?" The woman says again, staring at Aaron harshly.

"She's... got the sword. I'm sorry, I couldn't stop her," he says, bringing his gaze up to meet hers–who's was growing darker by the minute.

"You fucking asshole!" She shoves him brutally, the two guys letting him go so he could fall to the ground. His blood seeps from his legs and arm onto the concrete, staining the rocks a dark, ugly brown. Looking once more to the guys, she mutters, "kill him." Aaron's eyes go wide at her statement, but before he could say anything more, she was already turning away and mounting one of the horses.

The last thing she heard from him was an anguished cry that ripped through the skies, yet falling upon deaf ears as no one was around to hear it. The woman kicked the horses sides once more, letting the mount reach a fast gallop.

As she was about to leave the premises of Hyrule Town, four figures stand in front of her, each one carrying a deathly expression, each one with their weapons drawn. A bow in the Rito's hands. A spear in the Zora's, a hammer in the Goron's, and the magnificent Scimitar in the Gerudo's.

The woman's forced to pull back on the reins, causing her horse to vault high into the air, rearing its front legs wildly. She curses to herself as she notices a group of guards approach her from behind, and a dozen or so Rito archers above her, all with their bows nocked and ready to put her down.

"Off the horse and on the ground, lady," the Gerudo speaks, giving the woman an icy glare. With no other options, she dismounts her horse, raising her hands in the air. The hylian guards quickly surround her, pinning her in with their spears. Both the Rito archers and the Rito Champion continues to keep their bows drawn, while the other Champions advance on her.

"State your name, and your business," the Gerudo, Lady Urbosa, speaks.

"No can do, lady. My name's too precious for the likes of you to know," the woman says tantalisingly.

"To the castle dungeons," Urbosa says, signalling for the guards to take her away. The woman becomes increasingly irked as she's shoved along the path, the notorious glare of the Champions drilling into her back. As she passes the townsfolk of Hyrule Town, a few gasp from the recognition of the woman. Urbosa raises an eye, giving a knowing look to Mipha, who sighs and walks over to the small group of townsfolk.

~~🌹~~

Mipha's POV

"Hey there. What's your name?" Mipha asks the girl from the crowd.

"Annabelle," she whispers back.

"The girl that was being led away, did you happen to know her?" She asks Annabele. Mipha cups her chin delicately in her fingers as her brows furrow together in thought. The lady in front of her gives a feeble nod, her eyes darting around everywhere, as if Ganon were about to rise. "How, may I ask?" Mipha gives a gentle smile, calming her bubbling nerves.

"Well, she's sort of known well around Hyrule," Annabelle starts, "for her... dark deeds."

"Dark deeds?" Mipha raises an eyebrow, a small gasp slipping past her lips, "whatever do you mean?"

"S-she's a monster... A monster in disguise," Annabelle whispers, her eyes shaking ever-so-slightly, just enough for the Zora princess to notice. "She's after someone, and she doesn't care who she kills to get to them." A shiver runs down Mipha's spine as she takes a careful step back.

"Does she have a name?"

"Yes, I'm sure she does. Yet she's never revealed it to anyone." Annabelle murmurs, gradually drawing closer to Mipha. The glassy look in her eyes was slowly fading as she blinked back the tears. The shakes in her arms were dying down, and for a second Mipha was glad Annabelle was doing better. Until the Zora Princess felt a cool blade pierce her chest.

A bittersweet scream fills the air as Mipha falls to the ground. With little time to do anything else, she weakly brings her hands to the puncture wound in her chest, emitting her body in a bright blue light.

As Mipha looks up, she notices the once pleading expression Annabelle wore gone from her face–now replaced with a dark, foreboding look. "You were supposed to die!" Annabelle shrieks, lunging at the Zora again with the knife in hand.

Before anymore of Mipha's blood could be shed, two guards held back the wild girl, removing the weapon from her grasp. Another guard helped Mipha to her feet after she healed herself. After cladding Annabelle in solid iron chains, the guards pull her away, tugging her along the path. Mipha then becomes acutely aware of how many people were staring at her. She hurries along the path, keeping her head down. If there was anything she feared more in this instance, it was knowing that there very well may be a murderer in Hyrule. And this murder has help–a lot of help. Mipha knew this very well, because she was positive Annabelle was on that lady's side. She had to have been, no one else would've been game enough to stab someone who's digging around with the problem. 

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2201 words.